217. Race Pace: How To Determine Your Race Day Pacing Plan

Run4PRs

www.run4prs.com

Fall races are approaching quickly and people often want to begin talking about goal times for their races. There are websites like findmymarathon.com that have mile by mile breakdown of exactly what pace you should be running for each and every mile of a race based on course elevation. This is great to think about the variations of paces you might hit in a race, but it is important to remember that we are not robots. Unfortunately there isn’t a special formula that will work to know exactly what pace you will or should hit per mile because each mile might feel different to you personally. The weather, wind, mentally, water stops, etc can all impact how you are pacing.

Instead of focusing on mile by mile what pace you should be hitting we have a different approach we want our athletes to use. We are talking about speed limits at certain points during the race. We also want to spend these final weeks really visualizing and mentally preparing for how we want to feel at each mile of the race.

1. What is the best way to decide on a race day goal?

1. What paces have you been hitting in training

2. What paces do you think you can hit but also challenge you a bit

3. What is your history in the sport

2. How should you pace it?

1. Ideally we want to aim for negative or even splits.

2. Hills will slow you down, but we want to still account for this in the pacing plan. If the first half is very hilly and the second half is downhill, the EFFORT we want to give is a negative split

3. Should you run with a pacer or wear a pace band?